Gil Kane

Gil Kane (/dʒɪlkeɪn/; born Eli Katz/kæts/; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born Americancomics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character.

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Gil Kane was born Eli Katz on April 6, 1926, in Latvia[1] to a Jewish family that immigrated to the U.S. in 1929, settling in Brooklyn, New York City. His father was a struggling poultry merchant.[2] Kane attended high school at Manhattan's School of Industrial Art,[3] but left in his senior year[3] when he saw an opportunity to work at MLJ Comics (later Archie Comics). He recalled in a 1996 interview,

[F]rom the time I was 15, I was going up to the comics offices. ... My first job came the next year at 16. During my summer vacation [between years of high school], I went up and got a job working at MLJ in 1942 ... I was in my last year in high school [when I left]. I was 16 and I'd already started my last year but I'd already gotten my job the summer before at MLJ, so I didn't want to give up my job. I quit school in the last grade.[4]

Until being fired after three weeks, Kane worked in production, "putting borders on pages. The letterers would only put in the lettering, not the balloons, so I would put in the borders, balloons, and I'd finish up artwork — whatever had to be done on a lesser scale."[4] Within "a couple of days" of being let go, "I got a job with Jack Binder's agency. Jack Binder had a loft on Fifth Avenue and it just looked like an internment camp. There must have been 50 or 60 guys up there, all at drawing tables. You had to account for the paper that you took." Kane began penciling professionally there, but, "They weren't terribly happy with what I was doing. But when I was rehired by MLJ three weeks later, not only did they put me back into the production department and give me an increase, they gave me my first job, which was 'Inspector Bentley of Scotland Yard' in Pep Comics, and then they gave me a whole issue of The Shield and Dusty, one of their leading books".[4] He would also do spot illustrations for other studios.[2]

His earliest known credit is inking Carl Hubbell on the six-page Scarlet Avenger superhero story "The Counterfeit Money Code" in MLJ's Zip Comics #14 (cover-dated May 1941), on which he signed the name "Gil Kane".[5] Other early credits include some issues of the company's Pep Comics, sometimes under pseudonyms including Stack Til and Stacktil, and, in conjunction with artist Pen Shumaker, Pen Star.[5][6][7] He even used his birth name on rare occasions, including on at least one story each in the Temerson / Helnit / Continental publishing group's Terrific Comics and Cat-Man Comics.[5]

Showcase #22 (Oct. 1959), the first appearance of the modern Green Lantern. Cover art by Kane.

In the late 1950s, freelancing for DC Comics precursor National Comics, Kane illustrated works in what fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, creating character designs for the modern-day version of the 1940s superheroGreen Lantern,[11] for which he pencilled most of the first 75 issues of the reimagined character's comic. Comics historian Les Daniels praised Kane's work on the character, stating "The design was part of an approach that emphasized grace as well as strength, an approach especially notable in Kane's flying scenes ... Green Lantern appeared to soar effortlessly across the cosmos."[12] DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz noted in 2010 that Kane "modeled the Guardians on Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion, even as the human figures in the cast tended to mimic Kane's own tall, elongated build."[13] Kane and writer John Broome's stories for the Green Lantern series included transforming Hal Jordan's love interest, Carol Ferris, into the Star Sapphire in issue #16.[14]Black Hand, a character featured prominently in the "Blackest Night" storyline in 2009-2010, debuted in issue #29 (June 1964) by Broome and Kane.[15] The creative team created Guy Gardner in the story "Earth's Other Green Lantern!" in issue #59 (March 1968).[16]

He briefly freelanced some Hulk stories in Marvel Comics' Tales to Astonish, first under the pseudonym Scott Edward and then in his own name, defying the practice in which DC artists moonlighting at Marvel used pseudonyms.[21] He and writer/editor Stan Lee introduced the Abomination as an enemy of the Hulk in Tales to Astonish #90 (April 1967).[22] Kane also freelanced in the 1960s for Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a superhero/espionage title,[23] as well as the "Tiger Boy" strip for Harvey Comics. Kane then found a home at Marvel, eventually becoming the regular penciller for The Amazing Spider-Man, succeeding John Romita in the early 1970s, and becoming the company's preeminent cover artist through that decade. Kane's first Spider-Man storyline culminated in the death of supporting character George Stacy.[24]

During that run, he and editor-writer Stan Lee produced in 1971 a three-issue story arc in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May–July 1971) that marked the first challenge to the industry's self-regulating Comics Code Authority since its inception in 1954. The Code forbade mention of drugs, even in a negative context. However, Lee and Kane created an anti-drug storyline conceived at the behest of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and upon not receiving Code Authority approval, Marvel published the issues without the Code seal on their covers.[25] The comics met with such positive reception and high sales that the industry's self-censorship was undercut, and the Code soon afterward was revamped.[26] Another landmark in Kane's Spider-Man run was the arc "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" in issues #121-122 (June–July 1973), in which Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, as well as the long-time villain Green Goblin were killed, an unusual occurrence at the time.[27]

Conway, Kane's collaborator on the death-of-Gwen-Stacy storyline and elsewhere, described Kane in 2009 as

... a marvelous draftsman and an idiosyncratic storyteller. I quickly learned that working with him Marvel-style (that's when a writer gives the artist a plot and the artist breaks down the story, panel by panel and page by page) could sometimes result in lopsided storytelling; the first two-thirds of a story would be leisurely paced, and the last third would be hellbent-for-leather as Gil tried to make up for loose storytelling in the first half [sic]. So after doing a few stories with him in my usual loosely plotted style, I began giving him tighter plots, indicating where the story had to be by such-and-such a page. He seemed to prefer this, and I'm generally happier with the later stories we did together than the first few.[33]

Original 1971 Bantam paperback Blackmark, an early example of the graphic novel.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Kane did character designs for various Hanna-Barbera[23] and Ruby-Spears[35] animated TV series including The Centurions which he co-created with Jack Kirby. In 1974 he contributed to redesigning the obscure Marvel Comics character the Cat into Tigra,[36] and three years later created the newspaper daily comic stripStar Hawks with writer Ron Goulart. The strip, which ran through 1981,[37] was known for its experimental use of a two-tier format during the first years. During this decade he also illustrated paperback and record-album covers, drew model box art, and co-wrote, with John Jakes, the 1980 novel Excalibur![38] He drew the John Carter, Warlord of Mars series for Marvel beginning in June 1977.[39]

During the following decade, Kane drew for publishers including Topps Comics, for which he illustrated a miniseries adaptation of the film Jurassic Park; Malibu Comics, for which he and writer Steven Grant created the superhero Edge for a 1994-95 miniseries; Awesome Entertainment, in which he illustrated Alan Moore's four-page Kid Thunder story "Judgment Day: 1868" in Judgment Day Alpha #1 (June 1997); and DC, for which he drew several Superman stories. He was one of the many creators who contributed to the Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot wherein the title character married Lois Lane.[46] He and his former apprentice Howard Chaykin worked together again on a three-part story for Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #24-26 (Nov. 1991 - Jan. 1992)[47] and the Superman: Distant Fires one-shot (1998).[48]

Though his last full comic during his lifetime was Awesome's 40-page Judgment Day: Aftermath #1 (March 1998) — written by Moore and featuring the characters and teams Glory, Spacehunter, Youngblood and others in individual tales — his final narrative works, all for DC, were penciling the two-page "Antibiotics: The Killers That Save Lives" in Celebrate the Century: Super Heroes Stamp Album #5 (1999); portions of seven pages and the cover, all shared with humor artist Sergio Aragonés, of DC's Fanboy #2 (April 1999); and a two-page pastiche of 1970s Hostess Fruit Pie superhero ads, "The Star Sheriffs", in Green LanternSecret Files and Origins #2 (Sept. 1999). His last published comics art during his lifetime was a one-page illustration in Dark Horse Comics' Sin City: Hell and Back #4 (Oct. 1999).[5] Posthumously published was his final completed work, the two-issue Green Lantern / Atom story in Legends of the DC Universe #28-29 (May–June 2000); and four years later, the final issue, drawn in the mid-1990s, of Malibu's planned four-issue miniseries Edge, as part of the iBooks hardcover collection The Last Heroes.[5]

He remained active as an artist until his death on January 31, 2000, in Miami, Florida from complications of lymphoma.[1] He was survived by his second wife, Elaine;[51][52] as well as a son and two stepchildren,[38] Scott, Eric and Beverly.[1] For a time the family lived in Wilton, Connecticut,[8] where he was drama chairman of the Wilton Arts Council.[53] His final home was Aventura, Florida.[1]

Kane's work has been extensively reprinted. Marvel Comics released Marvel Visionaries Gil Kane in 2002[57] and DC Comics published Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane in 2013.[58]IDW Publishing released an "artist's edition", a reproduction of the original art, of Kane's Spider-Man work in 2012.[59][60]

Kane received numerous awards over the years, including the 1971, 1972, and 1975 National Cartoonists Society Awards for Comic Books: Story, and the group's "Newspaper Strip: Story Strip Award" for 1977 for Star Hawks.[61]

^Irvine "1950s" in Dolan, p. 95: "DC had decided to revamp a number of characters to inject new life into the genre. Writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane ensured that Green Lantern got his turn in October's Showcase #22."

^McAvennie, Michael "1960s" in Dolan, p. 105: "In his first confrontation with Star Sapphire, Green Lantern didn't realize he was actually battling his lady love, Carol Ferris. As was revealed by scribe John Broome and artist Gil Kane ..."

^McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 111: "Scribe John Broome and artist Gil Kane split this issue into two stories ... William Hand, introduced in a cameo by Kane, informed readers of a power light he invented to collect remnant energy from Green Lantern's power ring."

^McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 129: "John Broome's script and Gil Kane's renderings debuted a character who would one day become a Green Lantern - Guy Gardner."

^McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 103: "The Atom was the next Golden Age hero to receive a Silver Age makeover from writer Gardner Fox and artist Gil Kane."

^Manning "1970s" in Gilbert (2012), p. 56: Stan Lee skirted the system by tackling the controversial subject of drug abuse with the help of penciler Gil Kane.

^Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 152 and 154. ISBN9780810938212. As a result of Marvel's successful stand, the Comics Code had begun to look just a little foolish. Some of its more ridiculous restrictions were abandoned because of Lee's decision.

^Manning "1970s" in Gilbert (2012), p. 68: "This story by writer Gerry Conway and penciler Gil Kane would go down in history as one of the most memorable events of Spider-Man's life."

^Manning "1970s" in Gilbert (2012), p. 59: "In the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man to be written by someone other than Stan Lee ... Thomas also managed to introduce a major new player to Spidey's life - the scientifically created vampire known as Morbius."

^Manning "1970s" in Gilbert (2012), p. 70: "The Man-Wolf, a major new threat to Spider-Man and his supporting cast, was introduced in a two-part tale that saw the werewolf terrorize J. Jonah Jameson."

^Greenberger (2012) p. 131: "Chaykin signed on to write a three-part Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight arc for DC in 1991, which marked his first work with Gil Kane since Chaykin apprenticed with him nearly 20 years earlier."

^Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 281: "Writers Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, with illustrators Gil Kane, Joe Staton, and Tom Palmer, recounted the life and times of the Silver Age Flash Barry Allen in this ninety-six-page hardcover."